Human Rights at Home and Abroad: Past, Present, and Future

are in jail because they broke rules and couldn‘t lead an honest life; why should we trust their word now?
Everyone deserves a second chance, not everyone in prison is a murderer, rapist, or child molester. There
are some honest people in prison that have made a few mistakes but are ready to make amends. Yes they
are prisoners, and many people incarcerated need to serve life sentences for the crimes they committed,
but as one general population we must remember that an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.
In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king, and in many situations the staff within the
facilities heir the throne. Other than the victims, correctional officers should be obligated to report
inmate-on-inmate abuse. Incentives are instilled to discourage guards from reporting rape. They can be
penalized if they report abuse and the claim was fraudulent. Even though the C.O. was trying to protect
the inmate‘s safety, the guard‘s job may still be at risk. In turn, many correctional officers turn the other
cheek when an inmate claims they were raped. Securing their job comes before the claims of any
prisoner. Several prisoners have come forth in search of protective custody, after being raped, but many
are denied because the guards are protecting their careers. (Hensley, Christopher)
Prisoner classification policies are applied to avoid abuse. Such policies reduce probability for a
potential victim to be placed with the dangerous inmates. ―However, overcrowding helps practical
demands overrule personal demands, and many prisoners are placed with the dangerous inmates
regardless. Another downside of the massive prison population is the lack of supervision‖. If inmates
cannot be adequately supervised then they are at higher risk to be raped. Obviously, rape is easiest to
achieve when there no staff to witness the act. As if it wasn‘t hard already for an inmate to get a guard to
report his case, but now with the shortage of staff members is adding insult to injury.
Many of the predators in the prisons pretend to be friendly only to get feeble inmates as their cell
mate. Once they are cell mates the predator offers to protect the victims from all other inmates, but in turn
must do him favors. This is how a weak inmate becomes the sexual slave of another inmate. He is baited
by someone who is thought to be a friend; when actually he is targeting the weaker inmate upon arrival to
the cell. If the weaker inmate tries to fight or snitch, they will either be beaten severely by their cell mate;
or be thrown to the wolves.
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